Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Lo3W Poll *ATTENTION: SPOILERS!!*

Legions of 3 Worlds so far

Hi. Here's a new poll for you. This poll is very complex, as it contemplates not only the LEGION OF 3 WORLDS saga, but the entire Legion continuity also.

Have fun, Guys...

It's a great poll, thanks!

Thanks for the praise, Ricardo. That poll really was a lot of work...

But, say-- I noticed you hate the ReBoot Legion?? How comes? I always thought the early (Pre-DnA)ReBoot was the "best" Legion ever, in terms of overall quality, and my third-favorite Legion, right after the Disco & Silver Age Teams. And remember, it's in their potential to evolve/morph into just any other Legion version except ThreeBoot-- even 5YL, Silver Age or Disco Age!

What do you have against the Archies?

Fun poll! For a couple of questions, I found it really difficult to commit to a single answer. I chose 'Levitz/Giffen' as my favorite era, and I'm not really sure that that's the case.

And I don't really think the Time Trapper is any of the choices in that question.

None of the statements in question #3 really reflect how I view the Johns Legion, either. But it's likely there isn't a general statement for a poll that would.

All around, nice job.

Great poll!

I agree with Mystery Lad, there were some difficult choices. I ended up picking "The Levitz Legion" for my favorite. I figured that would include Giffen, Lightle, and LaRocque.

Thanks, Mystery Lad.

But how do you view the ACTION COMICS Legion? By issue 4 or 5 there's bound to be another poll in this vein, and I can put your kind of opinion in it as a option, if it's different enough from the other options...

Thanks, Ken.

You were right about the "Levitz Legion", except for one minor point:

Giffen's co-work with Levitz exclusively belongs either in the "Levitz/Giffen Legion" (Prime example: Great Darkness Saga), or in the "Levitz/Giffen Legion, second run" (Prime example: LSH #50).

I never liked the Reboot because it dumbed down LSH after what I consider one of the pinnacles of modern comics (TMK's). Not that Legion on the Run was any good (it wasn't), but you could save years of history, chronology, maturity and legend with decent mature writing. The reboot was unnecessary, it made Legion into just another book and essentially tried to "redo" Silver Age in 90s fashion, to very poor results. In fact, with characters like XS and Gates, and plots like Dream Police, there is no way it could go anywhere.
Threeboot is better at this respect because it is trying to do something else, and not simply being a Legion-less Legion book.

You throwed me off with Conwell,but I figured out you were talking about Gerry Conway,who was more well know for writing JLA and creating Firestorm and Vixen than writing the Legion,his best known Legion creation was Blok.

Great poll! A few of them were hard to answer, in terms of limitations.

My view of the Trapper, for instance, is that he is Vandal Savage, who after billions of years of failed schemes has nothing left but to try to meddle in the past since he's used up his present.

Yeah, it's Conway not Conwell.

Also, I don't wish for the Trapper to be someone else. I want the Trapper to be the Trapper.

My idea of a "classical" Legion is the one that existed between Adventure #247 and the end of the Magic Wars. 5YL got too twisted even though I like it overall. Reboot and 3boot were un-called-for in my book. Action seems very preboot oriented, but too there are too many adjustments.

Even your classical legion was at minimum, two different legions as it was cut in half by Crisis. No more pre-Superman Superboy and then no more Supergirl.

Until the latest, I've kind of gone with th flow. Waid's, or should I say Simone's, just didn't grab my attention. I was still waiting for the end of DnA's. I'd love to see that legion story complete, Shooter's complete, and then, I don't know, pick up somewhere that doesn't involve a large snake.

Yeah, Crisis was a problem for the Legion, but it still worked afterwards.

True and gave us a few terrific issues. It was a long time before I really understood that Superboy wasn't killed by Time Trapper but by DC.

Hey, since this Action Legion is before all that, does that mean Pocket Universe Superboy exists?

Hmm... maybe they can send Prime there?

Great poll.
I wasn' sure about the question asking if the Action comics Legion was the original Legion or not. I said Yes cause DC says so but I know it technically isn't. It's more of the old LSH altered by the Crisis like the rest of the DCU was. But DC does say this is now trhe original classic LSH so...

Also Levitz/Giffen era FTW!!!!
(it's what got me hooked in the first place)

It would have been nice if you added a few more "undecided" or Don't knows". I found question 15 perplexing. Is RJ Brande RJ Brande? Well I would assume his real last name was Daggle but there was no option for that choice? Also the "How powerful is the Time Trapper?" question. I'm not really sure who most of the characters you compared him to are so the question was kind of meaningless to me. Also, no option for the 5YL Legion being the REAL Legion, since they ARE or were...

I am surprised by how many people think the LO3W is "great".

The 3 Teams will make it out of this series, mostly intact

Part of me is still an optimist. Plus, if you really look at all of Johns past work, and even all the DC past mini-series, they generally aren't changed too-too much. There always some changes, but never full on overhauls. Even the worst of DC's non-Johns stuff. Not to excuse a breezy Legion death--I've already stated that should Blok die, I must exact revenge in kind from a real life DC editor.

Great poll! I hope TPTB gets a gander at it before jumping headfirst into another "visionary" reboot.

DC is a lot like Congress - they should get an idea of what the constituency would buy rather than ignoring us and doing whatever kooky thing they want. HOPEFULLY, this Lo3W project is part of there survey.

That would be my wish.

I'm afraid of a massive slaughterfest with one Legion made from the survivors *or* a forced conjoining, where all two or three versions of various characters are melded together into some sort of strange multi-historied melange.

I'd love to see the three legions remain mostly intact... but we saw what Superboy Prime did to the titans all on his own...

I still think the Time Trapper is Lori Morning, but there wasn't an option for that...

I didn't get a chance to vote but my vote probably wouldn't make a difference, anyway.

I felt the original Legion had run it's course and needed a change.

TMK did some interesting things in the beginning, Glorith, especially.
But seemed to wind down quickly ~ although I loved the Jewel merge of Mysa and Amethyst.
I missed Mon and Shady featured more, too.

I enjoyed the clones except no Shady and a quick death for so many of them.

I really liked them in their own book, though, especially the new Emerald Empress of the 2 Eyes!

Loved 3 boot, Gates, Umbra and XS.
Some of the stories were childlike but at least they were hopeful and fun, something I had always associated with the Legion, since that's the way they were originally written when I fell in love with them.

I don't like the dark stuff, really.
Although I loved most of DNA's run.
Hated Element Lad's fall.

Can't stand this boot.
Absolutely HATE it in almost every way.
The only good thing was Kitson's art.

Hate Shooter's run just as much.

So.
And Jeckie has always been my least favorite Legionnaire. Boring.
Except for Sensor Girl, so the snake didn't bother me a bit.

There.
I want a new Legion with the best from all of the runs ~ if they have a best.

I also missed the poll, but since I haven't been following LO3W, I wouldn't have been able to answer many of the questions, anyway.

Still, from what I have seen, I resist the idea of retconning again, no matter how "small" or trivial the changes may be. To me, the Legion consisted of a continuous thread from ADV. 247 until the Magic Wars. With 5YL things get a little murky because DC decided to do a mini-reboot early in the run and erase the presence of Superboy and Supergirl from Legion history. Otherwise, I enjoyed most of 5YL, even the darker, more mature take on the Legion.

The reboot restored much of the opitimism and fun to the Legion, and I loved characters such as Gates and XS. But to me the Legion has always been about the balance between good and evil, between optimism and negativity. I guess that's why I accepted Element Lad's downfall and Live Wire's sacrifice. Both made sense in the context of the characters and the Legion as a whole.

From there on, the reboot faltered as DnA didn't seem to know what to do with it. I guess part of the problem is the same problem that confronted the creators of the original timeline: Once you have the characters actually evolving, growing up, having kids, etc., what do you actually do with them? Do you let the story proceed along its natural course or do you keep the characters eternally young to match the supposed audience? DC always chooses the latter.

I never accepted the threeboot on so many levels, the least of which was restoring the characters to teenaged status. In every other aspect, the characters seemed only marginally recognizable. This version also relied on a trite premise: Kids who know everything rebel against adults who know nothing. This idea was trite by the end of the 1960s.

Shooter's run? I read only the first issue. In one issue, he managed to make Lightning Lad look like a dumb and irresponsible leader, and the rest of the Legionnaires didn't come off much better. Perhaps he should have stopped writing about teenagers when he ceased being one.

Yet the threeboot has its fans who have argued eloquently for its existence and benefits. I guess what this has taught me is that I expect different things from the Legion--things which current versions cannot deliver.

Which brings us to the Action Legion. Like everyone else, I was delighted to see the old characters and costumes again, yet somehow I started to realize that I'd read all this before. Every time DC reinvents the Legion, something is lost and other things gained, but it seems to me that they are still trying to recapture lighting in a bottle. Unfortunately, I'd rather see the stories go forward than backward.

Because of a career change, I haven't been able to afford comics in the last few years. That's actually been a blessing as it's given me some distance from all this. I've come to realize that my interest in the Legion remains unchanged even if current versions do not live up to my expectations. I currently do not have faith in DC's ability to deliver a Legion I would enjoy, but that's okay. The Legion opened the door for me to appreciate so many other things in comics and literature that I feel that I'm not really missing out on anything.

You're so mature, HWW!
Great post.

I think that with the Alex Ross stories, DC might have seen what was possible with the DCU besides eternally frozen characters resulting in ever more forced/repetitive storylines, perhaps for the first time.
I'd just like to see them apply the idea to the WHOLE of Legion history now, including some of the best characters from all of the boots.
Well, most of them, anyway.

Lastly, I'm greedier than you ~ I want the Legion to inspire kids, and adults, forever.